School Bus Road Tip review and summary
So to Wrap up this trip and close out the thread Here is what I learned.
Research as much as you can about the bus you want to buy, so choose wisely to try and mitigate risks.
Every school district/person is different but through communication and being generous "I offered to buy the transportation shop/office lunch" The Tulare transportation department really went out of their way to help me. They did what they could to make my trip home successful. Even going so far as to offer to immediately get me in a local shop that day to get the rear tires changed. I didn't have that kind of cash on me at the moment so I declined. They did spend almost an hour with me going over the bus and checking all the systems and safety devices out. let me be clear.. They did not have to do ANY of that.
Plan for problems, have a road side assistance insurance plan established. I used coach net, yes it's expensive just for a trip home but it's much less than a tow bill on the road.
Plan for the worst case scenario, you breakdown and have leave the bus in a shop , fly home while it's being fixed or stay in a hotel. Unless you can repair it yourself.
Plan your route Long before your fly out to drive. I used google maps to scout out fuel stops and possible mechanical shops along my route. With satellite imagery you can actually see how easily you can access a particular fuel stop, places to park and rest over night. I created a bus trip list on google maps and saved all these locations along my route for quick reference on my trip.
Tell your friends and family about your route and intentions. My wife was home and she would call me and chat to help break of the 14 hour drive days. She acted like a dispatcher for me and would give me distances and times to the next fuel stop in case I was getting tired or worried about my fuel level.
Bring bluetooth earbuds or headset to be able to talk hand free.
Ask about a 12V adaptor on the bus or plan on wiring one in when you get there. There are pre wired blade fuse power taps with the cigarette adaptor on the end that you can wire. Or bring a larger capacity backup phone charger battery. My jump box also doubled as a phone changer in case I got in a jam.
Depending on your mechanical prowess, bring as many tools and supplies that you can. I checked a 40lb bag of tools and carried on another 40 lbs of supplies.
I ordered a few things and had them shipped to an amazon pickup box at a truck stop just south of the school district. This was really helpful to get bulky, heavy items like Allison specific trans fluid and a camp sleeping mat for the bus.
If your bus has a computer Engine Control module, BUY a BlueFire LLC engine monitor. This is a bluetooth dongle that connects to your 6 or 9 pin data port (usually under the dash) and transmits real time, accurate engine data to your phone or tablet. With the 24 year old analogue gauges on the bus, this data was vital for me to watch for engine problems.
The interior of my bus was extremely dusty and dirty.. Like extremely. Every surface was coated with a thick layer of desert dust. Meaning that everything that I owned including me for the next 3 days was also coated in a layer of this dust. I had to stop and buy a pack of industrial wipes to try and clean up where I would sleep and the drivers area. I did not expect this and while it was not a real problem it did add a layer of crud to the trip that I did not expect.
My only regret about the trip is that I had to rush to get home. I had to do 1700 miles in 3 days and This was my first time ever seeing California, Nevada, New Mexico and the west.
Watching the sunset on the Sierra Nevada mountains as I headed east out of California was a wonderful experience. At my overnight stop at Williams, I was 53 minutes from the rim of the Grand Canyon and I could not stop to have a look. It's probably for the best because I had not yet truly properly gone through the bus to make sure it was totally sorted out for long road trips. Also I had not yet learned its idiosyncrasies.
Also I wish that I could have brought someone with me. The reality is that your insurance won't cover a passenger unless you have a chauffeurs license and spending 3-4 days riding on a school bus seat is less than comfortable.
The trip was excellent and I Highly recommend it to anyone looking for a little adventure. Buying from a school district is the best way to go in my opinion. I have full service history for the bus and I got to meet the people who operated and maintained it.
Hopefully this helps someone. I appreciate everyone on this thread for giving me advice and helping me make this trip successful.
J and the Flying Pig.
adapter is a godsend. Being able to monitor engine parameters on an accurate digital gauge versus the old analog gauges is a big plus. So far everything‘s been running great the bus has lots of power and accelerates really quickly right up to 65 miles an hour then it acts like it hits a brick wall. I really couldn’t be happier. The heat works great so I haven’t been cold pretty much everything on the bus works and the people at the school district spent an hour with me going through all the systems making sure everything was topped up and correct for the trip they even put air in the tires to make sure they were the proper pressure so they really bent over backwards to make sure that my trip at home was as successful as possible.
